Himura357

Hello all.

Lately I have been getting super crazy about classic cars. Problem is all the cars I want are mostly rust.

I'm not a body man, so I will be hiring a shop if I were to buy one. Luckily, all the panels are still available pre-fabricated for the car.

I'm going to attach some pictures of the car I am interested in. I want to know if you think the car is too far gone. They say as long as the frame is good and you have some metal to weld to you should be ok, but then again, some say its never worth it.

I really want to restore this car, but I also don't want to be stupid. Let me know what you think. I took the pictures myself.

starchland

Nothing is too far gone with enough time, effort and money. Worth is something really up to the individual. But after all said and done it's a labour of love and you would have a one of a kind ride. That's what keeps us going.

airintake0_0

You will have double whats its worth in fixing it if your having it done. Buy one thats in better shape to start with. Its always cheaper to buy it already done, just my 2 cents, I would never take on a car that rusty, just makes for a poor investment.

clubhopper

Depends on the rarity of the car in question. If you can likely find one in better shape in the future i would wait. Having a body shop do it will definitely cost significantly more to save this car from its fate. Like we are talking stripping down to the frame and doing an inspection, blasting the surface to see what we are dealing with, adding metal/weld work to many spots. Then replacing or again blasting, welding up components to be saved. Then thats on top of prime/paint. Wow just listing it out sounds expensive!

myflys2k

I thought about doing this a few years ago with a 70s Celica and doing an f20 swap in it. Couple words of advice

Step one: stop looking at Cars in Canada
step two: wait for a southern car to pop up at the right price and be ready to fly down and pick it up.

Himura357

Thanks for the replies.

These cars have become extremely collectible and are seeing prices going all over the place. From one that is a slightly rusty daily driver going for $25,000 USD to one that is immaculate going for $85,000 USD and everything in between.

The thing I keep hearing over and over (and I know it is good advice) is to wait for one in better shape. The thing is they rarely come up for sale. In the past 2 years I have seen 3 for sale in Ontario. One was just a shell, one was a race car and then this one.

What I want to know is how much are we talking about to get it to a non rusty state. I have sent pictures to a few body shops. One flat out said no. Other one said he would call me back and I am going to see a local car restorer.

We can say that the cheapest one that is not a rust bucket is around $25,000 USD. Currently, $25,000 USD is $32,150 CAD. I put in an offer of $11,000 CAD for this car, making the difference $21,150 from buying one from a warm state. That doesn't include shipping, duty and taxes.

I guess my real question is, can I get it to a restored body (hopefully painted as well) for $21,150? So far the shops have not been helpful. I guess it doesn't help that I have zero contacts in the body shop world and have no idea where to take the car. What do you guys think about that budget? Time is not an issue.

If the body work is going to cost more than $25,000 than yes, I will buy one from a warmer state or even from Europe, no question.

clubhopper

you probably could find a shop to do this for under $21,150, but that depends on how the body shop values their own work. Lots of good shops don't even do custom restore jobs as they are busy with insurance rebuilds...repair the large claims, fast cash and go.

makes sense you had one body shop already flat out refuse to work on this. Its difficult for anyone to estimate as its hard to determine the actual state of the vehicle's metallurgy. It'll be one of those peel back and uncover jobs, and if the rust of what we can't see is more extensive...then the body shop will have to dig deeper and take more time (which you'll have to pay for) which will invariably add to the final cost. I can see this spiraling out of control.

To put it in perspective a good friend of mine who painted another friend's show car, did custom rear aluminum welded rear fenders blended into his vehicle with a house of kolor paint job cost him $9,000 and this was the friend price. So for a whole car with extensive rust and re-welding required, i can easy see this get up to your $21,150 cap. Mind you this is a legit shop that does insurance work as well, so it took a while but it got done.

This will need to be basically a labour of love to pay to save this thing...and you'll need to find the right shop to pay that cares enough not to cut corners.

Spoon Fed

May I ask what the car is? Hard to tell in the pics...

Himura357

It's an Alfa GTV

haga888

I restored a Piaggio Ape that was in about the same condition a few years back. I did a lot of the work myself aside from blasting, welding, and painting. I sourced all the parts and re and re'd it myself. It didn't cost me the $21K but an Ape is probably half the size and it's not a collector vehicle so I wasn't too worried about getting it to showroom condition.

The big thing is virtually NOTHING was salvageable. I basically built a Piaggio Ape from a parts bin and a rusty shell. So paint and bodywork is unlikely the only thing that car is going to need. If you just want it driveable and looking decent from 50 meters and 50kph away, then you could probably do it in your budget. If you want it in collector status, there's probably no chance.